LOUISVILLE, KY --The Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation’s upcoming
exhibition Chairs, Jewels and
Teapots: Mike Angel, Donna Doane, Laura George will showcase the
work of three Kentucky artists never before featured in KACF
exhibitions.

Mike Angel is a former U.S. Treasury agent who began making
chairs as a hobby upon his retirement 12 years ago.He had always been interested in woodworking, but never studied
it formally.When his
mother asked him to repair and refinish a chair or two, he began
experimenting and learning about woodworking techniques and processes.He had always been drawn to the old “mule-ear” style chairs
with the traditional hickory bark seats that he had seen on the
porches of cabins in the Appalachian mountains where he grew up.Eventually he decided to adapt and expand on that idea to
create his own line of “mule-ear” chairs, so called because of the
way the back posts of the chairs stick up, like ears on a mule.Angel creates his chairs and settees primarily from walnut, oak
and cherry, and he fashions the seats from hickory bark.

Donna Doane’s jewelry-making career began while she was
studying to become a gemologist and decided to create her own designs
instead.She experimented
with beadwork and then studied silver-smithing and jewelry-making with
local artist Lona

Northener.She has
attended other workshops and training programs including a Navajo
inlay class in California.Doane
creates her one-of-a-kind pieces from sterling silver, incorporating
gold accents and featuring all sorts of precious, semi-precious and
faceted stones, such as opal, black onyx, lapis, malachite, pink
tourmaline and more.She
cites Egyptian, Aztec, Mayan and southwestern designs as inspiration
for her work.Doane also
works part-time for Louisville jeweler Andrea Carnahan.

Laura George was introduced to ceramics while she studied art
at the University of Louisville, where she earned her B.F.A. in
ceramics in 1999.She has
enjoyed working with clay ever since.She primarily makes stoneware, and she combines hand-building
and wheel-throwing techniques to create her whimsical teapots.For instance the lids and spouts of her teapots are
wheel-thrown, and the teapot bodies and feet are hand-built.George formulates her own glazes, sometimes altering commercial
glazing and sometimes creating her own from scratch.She sprays her glazes onto her pieces, and often uses paper to
block out patterns prior to spraying.This exhibition will feature a variety of George’s teapots
and tea sets.

Chairs, Jewels and
Teapots: Mike Angel, Donna Doane, Laura George will be on view
from August 17 to October 19, 2002 in the Kentucky Art and Craft
Foundation’s Downstairs Gallery at 609 W. Main St.The opening reception will take place on Thursday, September 5,
2002 from 5:00-7:30 p.m. Admission
is free.For more
information about the exhibition, contact the Kentucky Art and Craft
Foundation at (502) 589-0102 or log on to www.kentuckycrafts.org.

About
the Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation

The
Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded
in 1981 to continue the art and craft heritage of Kentucky through the
support and education of craft artists and education of the public.The Foundation is supported in part by the Fund for the Arts
and Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency of the Education, Arts and
Humanities Cabinet.The
Kentucky Art and Craft Gallery has newly extended hours and is open
Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Saturday 10:00 a.m.
to 4:00 p.m., or by appointment.

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Copyright 2002 The Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation

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